Clan Review: Bravado Gaming

Established back in 2002, Bravado Gaming is probably the most prestigious gaming organisation currently running in South Africa. Although it was established in 2002, the original team did disband allowing for a revival in late 2005, early 2006. Restarted in 2005 by Andreas ‘cent’ Hadjipaschali and Dimitri ‘Detrony’ Hadjipaschali, with the help of Andrew ‘chay’ Cowley, Bravado Gaming aims at being the largest contributing factor to competitive gaming in South Africa.

Before the 2005 revival, the team was created by Garth ‘Brute’ Jones who helped the team to many victories, some big – some small. The idea behind professional gaming interested Andreas to the point that he, and his brother, needed to revive the team to achieve their goal as being the biggest and best contributors to local gaming.

While the history behind Bravado is lengthy, we’d like to focus on the future — as what’s done is done.

Bravado Gaming boasts three top teams in three different games: Counter-Strike: Source, StarCraft II and Call of Duty 4. All three of these teams are monitored and controlled by the Bravado staff — a group of people who have added to the various parts of the community over the years.

Older players in the community might recognise many of the player names, despite their change in handle over the past few years. Most players have moved from the original Counter-Strike 1.6 scene to Call of Duty, or Source.

We said their teams are impressive, but just how good are they?

The Results

Counter-Strike: Source

2nd

Do Gaming Premier League Leg 2

2010

1st

Do Gaming Premier League Leg 1

2010

1st

RISEUP Lan Finals

2010

1st

RISEUP Online Qualifier

2010

2nd

MPLD March

2010

1st

RiseUP Tournament

2009

1st

LCUP Pro League

2009

1st

MSSA Online League Leg 2

2009

1st

MSSA Online League Leg 1

2009

1st

PluGG Guys vs Girls Main Event

2008

1st

PluGG Qualifier

2008

1st

rAge Northgate

2008

1st

BattleLAN Randburg

2008

2nd

Kode5 ZA Qualifier

2008

1st

Battle of the Clans

2008

1st

Kode5 Qualifier

2008

1st

BattleLAN Randburg

2008

2nd

rAge Northgate

2007

3rd

AGASA WCG Johannesburg

2007

4th

ESWC Emperor’s Palace

2007

3rd

PGL/Mobile

2007

Call of Duty 4

1st

Do Gaming Premier League Leg 2

2010

2nd

Do Gaming Premier League Leg 1

2010

1st

Afrihost Incredible Connection ONC

2010

1st

Brazen One Night Cup

2010

1st

OC Grand Final Frontosa Series

2009

1st

Telkom Do Gaming rAge

2009

1st

Organized Chaos Frontosa February

2009

1st

Organized Chaos Frontosa May

2009

1st

Organized Chaos Frontosa July

2009

1st

MSSA Online League Leg 2

2009

1st

MSSA Online League Leg 1

2009

1st

Carnage LAN

2009

1st

AGASA Division League Leg 1

2009

1st

AGASA Premier League Leg 2

2009

1st

AGASA Premier League Leg 3

2009

2nd

Intel BOTC Tournament v2

2009

1st

Intel BOTC Tournament v3

2009

1st

iGame Annihilator League Leg 1

2009

1st

iGame Annihilator League Leg 2

2009

StarCraft II

3rd

The Ultralisk League

2010

1st

The Fist Week 2

2010

1st

The Fist Week 1

2010

About the Bravado:

The name means ‘a swaggering show of courage’, or an arrogant show of courage. Thing is, Andreas assured us that arrogance only ever influences their attitude whilst playing. This being said, they enjoy playing caucasian persuasion, a team they’d go the extra mile to beat to feed their bravado — if you will. BVD’s will and dedication to beat any, and every, opponent shows their arrogance when fighting to be the best and most recognised organisation in the growing community. It was said that no one will get away with an easy game.

Following this, the Bravado logo symbolizes Synergy. In other words — all different aspects and parts of the community working together to achieve a common goal — represented by the star in the middle.

As previously mentioned, Bravado restarted in 2005 where they played a lot and won a lot. They stuck around for quite some time before going inactive, only to revamp their entire business model. At the moment BVD is currently aiming to lift gaming to new heights as they are focusing on various projects to grow the local competitive market.

When we asked about their future plans for 1 January 2011, 1 January 2012 and 1 January 2013, Andreas commented with:

1 January 2011: All foundations built — more sponsors, connections and divisions. Even if they do not sport the best sponsors, they would like to stay connected with potential sponsors for when they are ready to enter to market. It’s inevitable for this to happen, and they’d like to be first in line to help out.

1 January 2012: Something similar to Fnatic — headquarters, profit, salaries and entering into nationwide, and the occasional international, competition. Following this, they’d like to introduce more gamers to the competitive market to grow the player and skill-base.

1 January 2013: The gaming scene fully developed — Lots of sponsors, investors and tournaments. Bravado would like to be involved in everything and this means being a top-running organisation with ties to ESWC, WCG, MSSA, doGaming and Arena 77. In fact, they’d like to help anyone participating in gaming. Furthermore, they’d like their own branded equipment for players to use, and fans to purchase.

All of the above leads us to the next point: brand.

Bravado doesn’t only want to be a team or a Multi-Gaming-Organisation. They want to be a brand. Sure, they’d like to hold top teams, however the main idea would be a brand involved in anything and everything competitive-gaming-related. Bravado, as a brand, would help with competitions, events and overall growth — this includes helping teams find sponsors when starting out.

On the topic of brand image and sponsorship, Bravado holds three major full-team sponsors: PLuGG, Steelseries and ISGaming. Each of these sponsors benefit every single player under the Bravado tag, which is more than most teams can say. For the record, most teams have individual sponsors for individual teams — which isn’t bad, however it’s not what Bravado are looking for.

Naturally brand would mean company, right? Well, according to Andreas — not yet. He feels that gaming isn’t at the point where you’d need a company or legal entity for stability and growth. We saw legal bodies when we spoke about Ventus Gaming. But despite this, Andreas would rather offer hard work, sacrifice, top-notch results and basic management before looking good on paper to please someone for their sake of self-gain.

Andreas felt that South Africa has more potential than most established gaming countries where synergy (working together, connecting, etc.) and more competition/tournaments would vastly improve the community and the ability to offer gaming as an occupation and not a hobby.

Overall, Andreas said that he’s happy with the past results from the team and he’s sure that they will succeed with all future endeavours.

eGamer Overview:

Bravado Gaming is a purely competitive team — their focus is the competitive gaming market, which seems to have come to a halt — for now. While growth should be the main priority of every team at the moment, it feels as if individual player attitudes are destroying what most teams and tournament organisers are trying to accomplish. Regardless of this, we’re expecting a massive boom in the competitive scene as the Fifa World Cup will attract various investors to the country where they will offer loads of opportunities to many new start-ups. Hopefully one could be gaming.

Moreover, BVD are looking to stay ahead of the game by refreshing their teams, and adding new divisions to their line-up. And while their outlook on gaming is strictly competitive, we found that they’d definitely help other teams — when possible.

It’s interesting to talk about a few of the ideas from the top teams such as Pantheon, Bravado and Ventus as they are expected to carry the community to new heights over the next few years. The only problem we, at eGamer, find with the gaming community is that the attitude of select players seem to break down everything these guys are trying to achieve. Of course competition is vital, however animosity at what others are trying to achieve should not hinder growth, but sadly — it feels like this is the case. Following this, the attitude of selfish players are killing any chance of stability in gaming, and at the moment we’re sitting with a very volatile gaming community.

Fortunately, with plans like those mentioned above, things should, and will, change. Once again – we’re saying sponsorship is key, as this will force teams to stick together for the greater good.